Montreal’s economy has turned the corner — but it still lags behind other major Canadian cities, according to Henry Diaz, an economist at the Conference Board of Canada’s Centre for Municipal Studies.

In June, Statistics Canada’s unemployment rate for the Montreal census metropolitan area dropped for the 13th time in 16 months. At 6.5 per cent, it was the lowest June unemployment rate the region has seen since 2007 and equal to the Canadian average.

In total, the Montreal area added 32,000 jobs between December 2016 and June. Of those jobs, about 18,500 were in construction.

Those gains are coming largely as a result of major projects like the construction of the new Champlain Bridge and the rebuilding of the Turcot Interchange along with some smaller projects, Diaz said.

The job growth comes as the region’s economy is on track to grow by 1.9 per cent this year, according to the Conference Board.

Economic growth and employment growth are closely intertwined, said Chantal Routhier, an economist with Desjardins.

“Employment increasing is always a result of economic growth,” she said.

While construction, with its relatively high demand for labour, might be driving much of Montreal’s employment growth, the city’s overall economic growth is coming in a variety of sectors, Routhier said.

Business services, technology and manufacturing are all contributing to the growing economy.

“These seem to be sustainable gains. The city seems to have turned a corner,” Diaz said.

But he cautions that even though Montreal’s economy is doing better than it was, other major Canadian cities are expected to see stronger growth.

The Conference Board is forecasting 2.7 per cent growth in Toronto this year, while it expects to see Vancouver’s economy grow by 2.4 per cent.

“The overall mood is it’s going well, not extremely well, but it’s going well,” said Yves-Thomas Dorval, president of the Conseil du Patronat.

He said business owners are more confident than they’ve been in recent years, but that things could be going better.

It’s not just Montreal that is seeing its economy growing; other parts of Quebec are seeing even stronger employment growth, he said.

In May, Quebec’s unemployment rate reached 6 per cent, the lowest level since Statistics Canada began tracking unemployment rates in 1976. It was unchanged in June.

Unemployment rates in the Gatineau, Quebec City and Sherbrooke CMAs are all lower than in Montreal, according to Statistics Canada.

It’s a similar situation across the country. Only Manitoba and British Columbia have lower unemployment rates than Quebec. Among Canada’s 10 largest metropolitan areas, only Calgary and Edmonton have higher unemployment rates than Montreal.

Dorval credits much of the province-wide growth to trade and to high consumer confidence in other parts of Canada and the United States.

And Montreal’s economic and employment growth is boosting the city’s real-estate industry, leading to increases in home prices.

In fact, according to Routhier, Montreal’s real-estate market is now healthier than Toronto’s or Vancouver’s, because price increases are coming as a result of real economic and employment growth and aren’t being affected by speculators looking for quick gains.

While economic forecasts for Montreal over the next couple of years are relatively optimistic, there’s still a big question: what will happen with NAFTA?

“Even if we do think that Montreal has turned a corner, this is still a risk and we have to wait and see what happens with that,” Diaz said. Changes to the free trade agreement could have an impact on trade and exports, he said.

Dorval has similar concerns. While he said the business community believes the pragmatists will win out, there are still fears.

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